Sick Kidneys

If your kidneys are sick, and needing transplantation, fret not, as more kidneys are coming, one study suggests.

This Australian study is suggesting that even kidneys with tumors should be viewed as a possible, yet largely overlooked, source of kidneys for transplants. (You can read about it in the July issue of BJU International.) Why do the researchers suggest that? Because of the dire and ever-growing shortage of kidneys.

A friend of mine was contemplating, or willing, to part with US$85,000 in exchange for his sister’s kidney. Recently, a well-respected tycoon, and boss of a well-known firm was charged for allegedly going to pay even US$212,000 to a middleman for a foreigner’s kidney. Boy, how high can the price of a kidney get, even to the extent of risking the breaking of his country’s law in doing so¹? No doubt, trading of kidneys, whether legal or illegal, has been going on since God-knows-when.

I am not saying that the tycoon was dying or about to die, but I know that a kidney is priceless to a person who is dying, or worse still, likely to die soon, as a result of failed kidneys. Well, it's understandable why so many people or doctors, in desperation, go for extreme measures to save--so to speak--their own, if not other peoples', lives.

But, need we go so far as to do that? Is kidney transplant really necessary in most of the transplant cases? In some countries, there appears to be family obligations to donate kidneys to family members. If this is to be the case, where will the practice of donating members of one’s body end? Does it mean that the blind or someone who’s about to become blind going to expect to receive a good eye from his relative? Or, will a diabetic who’s about to be amputated of both legs expect or even demand to receive a limb from his wife, so that both will become single-legged animals for the rest of their lives (I suppose, one can easily “justify” that practice; after all, his wife should love him enough! Debatable!!)?” The examples could go on and on...it might seem ridiculous, and you might laugh at it (saying, "it'll never happen in my country!"), but strange and unexpected things do happen! I certainly hope that it won't get worse.

Doesn’t the thought of having to give away or sell one’s healthy (or even not-so-healthy) member or organ (even a tumored kidney, for that matter) to one’s cousin or aunty make one shudder? Has nature intended it that we should “rob,” or to say it more acceptably, purchase kidneys or other organs from each other?

For more insights, read the upcoming blog…




¹ This case sparked a nation-wide debate as to whether or not trading of human organs should be legalized in the country.